Knowing The Real Thing Antique Shows Are Now In Full Swing, And Collectors -- Novices And Pros -- Should Beware Of Sophisticated Fakes.

January 17, 1986|By Dorothy-Anne Flor, Staff Writer

What`s new in the antiques field?

Too much.

December opened South Florida`s antique show season and, as usual, reproductions and fakes are flooding the marketplace, according to Anne Gilbert, a Fort Lauderdale appraiser of fine art and personal property. This is the time of year when a good many shoppers will be taken, sometimes purposely, sometimes just because the fakes have become so sophisticated they will fool all but the most knowledgeable.

In fact, include the most knowledgeable.

For example, Gilbert, an authority on fakes and reproductions, paid a pretty price recently for a beautiful piece of antique glass. Then she was delighted to find its twin in another shop. When she got the second piece home and compared it with her original buy she found they were duplicates except for one important thing. There was a slight difference in the color of the two pieces. The fake lacked the grayish tone that indicates the presence of lead in the glass. But in the shop, without the real thing to compare it with, there was no way to tell the color was wrong.

``If I got taken, anybody can get taken,`` Gilbert says.

While an antique is defined as an object at least 100 years old, the finest were made before l830, the approximate start of the Industrial Revolution, after which machines replaced human hands.

It is the ability of these machines to duplicate almost anything that has caused a large part of the problem. Gilbert estimates that antiques offered in today`s market are 30 percent real, 70 percent fake. ``It`s bad enough so that everything that is sold today through auction houses like Sotheby`s and Christie`s carries a proviso that they will not be responsible for the authenticity of the article. If they are not responsible, who is?`` she says.

However, Gilbert believes there is a way of ``taking some control over a bad situation.``

As a member of the International Society of Fine Arts Appraisers Ltd., an organization of specialists representing all areas of the antiques field with chapters in 49 states and Europe, she founded a South Florida chapter of ISFAA in l984. Its general goal is an exchange of information between members.

In addition to Gilbert, the 25 members who meet monthly in Broward or Palm Beach counties include Jeannette Parkman, porcelain restorer and dealer, and Lorraine Simon, specialist in antique and art deco jewelry, both of Pompano Beach; Paul Legel, old prints, Ann Plummer, American antiques, and Zita Bell, antique show promoter and Oriental art specialist, all of Boca Raton; JoAnn and Richard Taylor, Boynton Beach, auction house owners; Paul Eiker, Delray Beach, Oriental and European porcelain; and, in Fort Lauderdale, Harry Ross, English paintings of the 19th century, Pauline Pocock, English antiques, and Mary Massey, vintage clothing and textiles.

``This season our members have been alerted to watch for phony pieces in the areas of portrait miniatures, Shaker-style furniture, l8th century French furniture, Oriental porcelains, jade and art deco jewelry,`` says Gilbert. Because of the popularity of these items, the buyer is particularly vulnerable. For example, some time ago Gilbert was asked to assess three 18th century porcelain miniatures. The owner had bought them for $500 each in a good antique shop in London.

``I removed them from their frames. If they had been authentic, I`d have been looking at the back of a piece of painted porcelain. Instead, the client was demoralized as I removed layer after layer of cardboard from the backs of these pieces until I came down to a color lithograph of a painting. Because the front of the portrait was under convex glass, it gave the illusion of being painted on porcelain. To be safe, you have to examine miniatures from the back,`` Gilbert says. ``This woman had also paid $200 for a painting on ivory which turned out to be a decal on plastic.``

To think you are acquiring ivory when in reality your treasure is plastic or bone is not unusual, according to Parkman, who offers a tip for buyers. ``Look at the piece through a jeweler`s loupe,`` she says. ``If bone, it will show elongated markings; if plastic, you will find a seam line as if a mold had been poured. If it`s truly ivory, the loupe will reveal a hairline cross-patch, a tic-tac-toe pattern.``

Jade is almost impossible for the novice to assess, according to jewelry expert Simon. This is an area where nothing will replace a reputable dealer who specializes in the field. In addition to the many colors and kinds of jade, the buyer has a choice between handmade antique jade items and machine- carved new jade or jadite (a softer jade). ``While people assume jade is from the Orient, the best jade in the world today comes from Wisconsin,`` she says.